Fairtrade Fair on Ealing Green
11am - 4pm, Sat 11 th March
Supporters of the Ealing Fairtrade Campaign are raising awareness of Fairtrade and fairly traded goods by holding a Fairtrade Fair on Ealing Green 11am - 4pm, Saturday 11 th March.
The Mayor of Ealing will visit the Fairt at 3.15 pm. There will be ethically produced food, clothes, and jewellery from around the world; and activities, including: a football competition and raffle . Among the stall holders will be major national retailers and charities like Marks and Spencers, Oxfam and Friends of the Earth, as well as smaller shops to celebrate Ealing's local distinctiveness - Farm W5 who will run a BBQ and West London YMCA's charity book shop and bouncy castle.
The event is being organised by West London YMCA and Ealing Fairtrade Supporters Group with support from Ealing Council and Ealing Town Centre Partnerships, and coincides with Fairtrade Fortnight � a national, annual event, whose theme this year is Make Fairtrade Your Habit . Fairtrade guarantees farmers and producers in developing countries a minimum price that covers the cost of production and an extra premium that is invested in the local community. Consumers in the UK who regularly buy Fairtrade tea, coffee or any other food or drink with the Fairtrade mark are directly benefiting the people who grow them.
For stall enquiries, offers of help and raffle donations please contact Alexander Beckett, Environmental Health Project Officer, Ealing Council. Telephone 020 8825 5313 or email becketta@ealing.gov.uk .
Drayton Manor High School is supporting Fairtrade fortnight. Students are involved in planning the Fair and will be out in force on the day. Students from Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College will also be contributing to the event.
The London Borough of Ealing is aiming to become a Fairtrade Borough. There are currently nearly 150 Fairtrade Towns across the UK , including six London Boroughs. To achieve Fairtrade Status in Ealing, Fairtrade must be supported and promoted by the Council, and Fairtrade foods and drinks must be sold and served in a specified number of shops and cafes, and should be available in schools, colleges, workplaces and places of worship.
Did you know that over £140 million was spent on Fairtrade products in the UK in 2004? The products are no longer the preserve of a tiny minority interest group, but are being taken seriously across the country.
The Fairtrade Foundation says:
"The relentless roller coaster of fluctuating commodity prices can have the same catastrophic effect on the lives of farmers and workers in the developing world as a natural disaster like a tsunami. Disastrous troughs in world prices for agricultural goods, alongside the long-term downward price trend, are devastating the lives of families and rural communities as farmers struggle to make a living from their land. The impact may be more gradual, but the spiralling effects of falling prices and loss of income can lead to under-employment, economic and physical hardship, homelessness, forced migration, and life-threatening poverty and disease.
Against this backdrop, Fairtrade is a positive model of trade which is fairer and more sustainable for farmers and has the potential to transform communities."
If you sell food or drink and would like to know more, you are invited to a Wine & Fairtrade event on 14th March at the YTwo Cafe (YMCA). Join the local consortium and get discounted Fairtrade poroducts. For more information contact judithramm@blueyonder.co.uk
March 2, 2006
